Todd Gee, U.S. Attorney for Southern District, Mississippi
If you or someone you know has been a victim of abuse by a member of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Department of Justice wants to hear from you.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi said on Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice is committed to enforcing laws protecting the civil rights of all persons in Rankin County, Mississippi and throughout the nation.
To enforce these laws, the DOJ says it is critical that federal authorities receive information from the public regarding allegations of abuse.
The public is encouraged to contact the FBI hotline at 1-800-CALL-FBI, email tips.fbi.gov or call the FBI Jackson Field Office at 601-948-5000, if you or someone you know has been a victim of abuse by a member of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office.
The announcement comes after the DOJ’s work related to six former Mississippi law enforcement officers with a total of 16 felonies stemming from the torture and physical abuse of three Rankin County residents in two separate unrelated incidents pleading guilty to all charges against them.
The former officers admitted to kicking down a door and entering a home without a warrant or any exigent circumstances in January. Two black men in the residences were handcuffed and arrested without probable cause to believe they had committed any crime. The officers called the men racial slurs and warned them to stay out of Rankin County.
According to the DOJ, the officers punched and kicked the men, tased them 17 times, forced them to ingest liquids, and assaulted them with a sex toy. During the incident, one of the officers fired his gun twice to intimidate the men.
At the conclusion of the incident, DOJ says another officer surreptitiously removed a bullet from the chamber of his gun, forced the gun into one of the men’s mouths and pulled the trigger. The unloaded gun clicked but did not fire. The officer then racked the slide, intending to dry-fire a second time but when he pulled the trigger, the gun discharged, lacerating the man’s tongue, breaking his jaw and exiting out of his neck.
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